STABBING

Hamilton police have confirmed that they have a suspect under guard in hospital following a nightmarish stabbing rampage through several floors of a Melvin Avenue high rise Saturday night.

The suspect, who police have yet to identify, will be charged in the near future.

“We have someone under arrest and are awaiting the opportunity to formally charge them,” Hamilton Police spokesman Claus Wagner said Monday.

A man was taken from the scene Saturday evening after witnesses say he was repeatedly shocked by police using Tasers. The province’s Special Investigations Unit, which investigates all cases where civilians face serious harm during encounters with police, confirm that a civilian is being treated for a broken ankle.

The Spectator was unable to determine if the suspect is also being held for psychiatric evaluation. Witnesses described the attacker as robotic and emotionless.

There are reports the violence began with an argument in a 12th floor apartment, but witnesses described first encountering the attacker as they exited an elevator on the building’s 10th floor.

Brook Eveleigh and her girlfriend stepped out of the elevator and were confronted by a man with a knife.

When he wouldn't let them pass, one of the girls pushed him aside and they raced down the stairwell to her grandfather's unit on the third floor of the Melvin Avenue building.

Minutes later, the same man burst through the door of Eveleigh's ground floor apartment — and stabbed her mother and stepfather.

"Not even five minutes of me being in my grandparents' house, my mom and sister came running in screaming and my mom was full of blood," said Eveleigh, 14. "When I close my eyes, I can see it all again."

The teenager thought he lived in the building — she'd seen him before in the elevator.

After numerous 911 calls about a stabbing, police arrived at 221 Melvin Ave. just before 10 p.m. Saturday at the highrise near Parkdale Avenue North. They immediately tended to four patients who appeared to have been stabbed.

Witnesses pointed out the suspect, who was nearby, to police. The man fled and police chased him.

Residents on their balconies and people on the street watched the man climb onto the balcony above the pizza place next door and try to get inside the apartment. When he was unsuccessful, he jumped.

Misty Crouse, 26, who watched from across the street, believed he had a large knife and appeared to be wiping it on his pants. Other witnesses, including Eveleigh and her stepfather, Jamie Meuse, said they saw a sizable weapon.

Staff Sergeant Mike Webber would not say if the suspect was tasered.

The Special Investigations Unit, which investigates whenever a civilian is injured or killed in interactions with police, was called in.

The SIU had four investigators and two forensic officers on site. Lead investigator Dean Seymour said Sunday morning their probe will focus on the area near the pizza shop and the storefront next door where the police interaction occurred, not the apartment building.

A single shoe was left on the porch of the storefront where video footage shows the suspect was eventually subdued by police before he was put on a stretcher and taken to hospital.

Neighbours said an altercation started just after 9:30 p.m. Saturday between two roommates in an apartment on the 12th floor. One of the men chased the other down the stairwell and for unknown reasons, the suspect ended up on the eighth floor, according to tenant Frank Gotz.

Gotz, 26, who lives across the hall from unit 806, said he heard a man beat on his neighbour's door. When he peered through the peephole in his door, he said the attacker had already stabbed the neighbour and his mother.

All three flew down the stairwell, he said.

"She was already stabbed — she went to go chase the killer, she was yelling after her son," said Gotz, who shot video footage through the peephole of his neighbour's mother talking to police after the attack. He has posted it on YouTube.

A trail of blood leading to the first floor was still visible Sunday. There were bloody footprints on the ground and hand prints were plastered on a door.

The assailant ended his rampage on the main floor, where he walked into unit 106 — where Eveleigh and her family live.

Jamie Meuse said that as the man walked around inside, the teen girl's shocked mother, Christine Fitzsimmons-Meuse, asked him what he was doing. Meuse said the attacker then came at his wife with the knife.

Meuse said he was in the back bedroom and their eight-year-old daughter had just headed off to bed. After hearing her mother's screams, the daughter ran into the living room followed by her father.

"My wife got between the guy and my daughter, he started toward my wife and tried to stab her; she blocked the blow, but the knife went almost all the way through her hand," Meuse, 40, said from his living room on Sunday.

Meuse also recognized him from the building, but they never spoke to each other — he guessed he was 25 to 30 years of age.

Then the man attacked him. They struggled down the hall and into the bedroom. After Meuse got free and headed for the door, the man stabbed Frankie, their two-year-old pug dog.

As quickly as he came in, the man ran out the front door, burst into the apartment across the hall and attacked the tenants before jumping off the balcony, Meuse said.

Meuse, who was later treated for stab wounds to his head, face and neck, said the attacker never said a word, didn't show any emotion and didn't acknowledge anyone's screams.

Hamilton EMS platoon commander Jim Summers said a 60-year-old woman was stabbed in the neck and a 37-year-old man was stabbed in the neck and head. Both were taken to Hamilton General Hospital with serious but non-life-threatening injuries.

The Meuses were taken to St. Joseph's and treated for minor wounds.

A fifth patient was taken to hospital with a broken ankle.

Webber would not comment on the suspect's condition, but on Sunday said he was still receiving medical treatment in hospital.

Police declined to identify the suspect, as charges are pending. The investigation continues.